Harry Potter and the Society of the Red Star
by Shitza
Summary: 'This is it', Harry thought gazing at the dark castle of Durmstrang. 'This is where my new life starts.' Book 1 remake to a Soviet/Russian based story
1. Prologue

_This is, by far, the most researched story I've ever started. I actually went as far to go to my uni-library, to borrow some more facts of the Soviet Union (which I have no more memories about, except for my dad saying, well... all goes up that goes down), and do historical research of what exactly happened. The author of Sovjetunionen och det Nya Ryssland (The Soviet Union and the New Russia), Staffan Skott carried a very Swedish perspective. So I hope within this story, I can only make Russia right by all traditions and more, and if anyone knows more about this time period in Russia, feel more than free to send me any kind of message so we can all make this story justice._

_This story has not always been easy to write, considering my Russian is practically limited to around 0 words without the use of online dictionaries. My personal knowledge of the world outside my own country is situated to the central and western parts of Europe and further east to Russia's neighbour China._

_Since this will be, without a doubt, my last story (perhaps series of stories, depending on how well this goes and how much time I can spare), I hope you all enjoy it._

_Dobreviche!_

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><p><strong>Harry Potter and The Society of the Red Star<strong>

**Prologue**

Vernon Dursley is not what you would call a believer. He does not believe in God, or any mystical higher power. He does not believe in ghost, or anything out of the occult. Neither, will he ever consider the possibilities that the man beside you, you know, that strange man that dresses in a fur coat and top hat in the middle of May, would be nothing more or less than a complete nut-case. No, what he believes in, or more or less, all he believes in are things such as money, wealth and family, in short, it has nothing to do with such things as religious bogus, magical tricks or strange occurrences... is this some kind of a joke?

You see, he lives a pretty simple life. He has a wife, a career, and a beautiful baby boy. So why is it, that very fateful day, that same day he met his future wife, his life would take a turn for the unthinkable. See, several years ago as he met this charming, sweet, lovely lady. She kind of reminded him about his aunt Mathilda, a woman who was prim and proper yet never would hurt a fly. This young girl's name was Petunia Evans, and would you know the irony of it, he met her at a garden party.

About six years from now (to date), they had a small baby boy, they named Dudley, and he was their one and most valuable treasure. Vernon spent many thoughts of how perfect their son would be, with a nice, lovely mother as Petunia and a strong, wealthy and smart father as himself.

Yes, indeed, his life was perfect, almost too perfect. And guess what, perfection sometimes comes with a price.

At that party he discovered that his darling Petunia had a younger sister, Lily Evans, who too had married and later had a young boy, Harry (what a ghastly name). On Halloween, you know, that day when children play their idiotic Trick or Treat games, they went and blew themselves up.

Yes, it came as a shock to hear it, but personally he was relieved to know he would never have to worry finding them magically appear by their house, through fireplaces, from the air, riding what-do-you-call-it-again... oh yeah, broomsticks. As if their lot shouldn't be modern enough to have adapted to hovers by now? Then again, did he really care? No...

On that night, between October 31 and November 1, they found their so-called nephew wrapped in a bundle at their front step. With him was a letter, that said:

_Dear Mr and Mrs Dursley_

_In the light of the terrible passing of your beloved sister and her husband whom we all sorely miss, we of the wizarding community would beg of you to help and aid us in raising young, little Harry until the day he turns 17. Harry had the misfortune of witnessing the death of both his parents being murdered by our times most horrible wizard, yet survived a curse that should have killed him, but rebounded upon his caster. While chances are slim, he might still be in more danger to come, therefore you, Petunia Dursley, as the sister and only blood relative to his mother, whose love saved her son from death, can be the only one to withhold the magical protection that keeps him safe. As we do not know yet whether he may still be out there, waiting to kill him, please, take good care of little Harry and raise him well. One day, he will be ready to rejoin our society, but that day is not now._

_Yours Sincerely_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Bryan Dumbledore_

_Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

After this years came and went. All though he personally hated the idea of having one of those things under his roof, Petunia, for some reason, had to keep the boy. They kept him safe, or, kept him under surveillance, either by themselves or the old, senile hag with the cats down the street. They fed him, but only the exact amount that they could spare, and no more than that. They gave him their son's clothes, once he didn't want them any more and hoped if they would ignore him long enough, he would simply just disappear.

But as the years passed slowly, that never happened and the fear something would come still gnawed him slowly. He knew, with such a thing in the house his life would never be safe again. And he waited slowly for a moment in which his wife would finally come to his senses and throw that foolish thing out!

Unfortunately, nothing like that seemed to ever happen, and as Dudley's sixth' birthday approached, little did Vernon know that five days before this lively event, something would happen to change their lives, Harry's life and much of what-could-have-beens forever. And this has nothing to do with the return of the strange man, known only by signature, Albus Dumbledore, no, five days before Dudley turned 6, smoke appeared.

It was five days before their perfect, flawless son turned a year older, that they had to temporarily leave the house. To make sure all the furniture and belongings stayed safe, they locked the small boy into the cupboard under the stairs for safe keeping until they'd come back. You see, Mrs Morris, a woman who lived on her own with a son a few houses away, had phoned them the night before and been very keen on knowing how her little boy, Thomas, had gotten a black eye the other day. She blamed Dudley for this, saying her son had told her how the demonic child had punched him, for not giving him his favourite space warrior-toy, while Petunia had heard from Dudley, that Thomas had hurt himself by falling off the tree they had played in. Since Mrs Morris was a very big woman with a loud, booming voice, Petunia had asked Vernon to go with her, to make sure they defended Dudley with all honour and pride that only the Durlsey's could.

The day was fairly warm and cloudless. Earlier in the eve, the daily news had forecast clear weather overnight, and nothing, absolutely nothing greyish to appear for at least another few days. The discussion between both parents had been rather fierce, in which Mrs Morris, regardless of the fact that she was divorced and had no one to lean on, could easily defend her son from both adults and feared no man when it came to her son's well being.

Petunia Dursley had been leaning on Vernon for support, feigning near faint, when Mrs Morris suddenly gasped and pointed at the direction of their house. Both Dursleys looked back, and were shocked to see a pillar of smoke rising from their house. Ignoring the events that came before, all three hurried back to hopefully rescue some of their belongings.

Vernon Dursley, Petunia stayed behind to keep Dudley safe, stumbled into the hallway, and when he noticed neither smoke or heat, he grabbed the vase of flowers and hoped to put the fire out, because he guessed it couldn't be very big then if he didn't see any flames. He hurried into the kitchen, and dropped the vase in anger. The refrigerator had been blown up, and little Harry stood behind the kitchen door (somewhat squashed and confused as he had been standing behind it when Vernon Dursley almost kicked it open), holding a chicken leg in his hand.

The man was more than enraged; he was furious. And when Petunia entered the kitchen, wondering what was happening, she broke into tears.

Rage built with the man's chest and exploded in a fury of spit and curses.

"Haven't we been good to you, boy? Haven't we given you food, dressed you, allowed you to live beneath our roof? Why, you snivelling, little thief do you steal our food then?" Vernon yelled at the young boy.

Harry was close to tears, and gave a simple reply.

"But, you didn't give me any dinner, and I was hungry... _Sir_."

And, while Petunia took Dudley back to his room, and distracted him for the rest of the evening by playing with him, Vernon forced Harry into his home study. There, he took a thick leather belt, told Harry to take of his shirt, and beat him until the boy was out cold on the floor.

They didn't give him any dinner for the remainder of the week. Yet, once they had calmed down from the hysteria of the events that passed, true fear finally started to sink in, even to Petunia who at this point had been rather protective of him. One night, as they prepared to go to bed, she put her fear into words.

Brushing her hair from her eyes she spoke softly.

"Vernon, I am frightened. What if the boy tries something like that again? Oh Vernon, he is so powerful, just like them, what if he breaks out? How will they react, will they come and kill us? Considering how we treat the boy, what if he tries to kill us? Oh, Vernon, he scares me."

Vernon Dursley, who had just laid down to his side to sleep was fully awakened by this statement, oh, he had longed for so long to finally hear those words, and decided it was finally time to get his will into action. Carefully, he chose his words.

"Yes dear, the boy is a danger. I am very certain that he will grow up to be very much alike that wretched father of his."

"His mother used to be such a dear before they found her, what do you think?"

"Brainwashed her, like they did during the war. Made her believe she was superior to all of us, but you know what they say, we are all equal." He snorted at the last.

"Vernon, don't!" Petunia said. "But I wish I knew what to do."

"Petunia, you know I've always respected your wish to look after your sister's blood, but with those hooligans almost at our door and with Dudley, is this really safe? Do you want Dudley to grow up in such fear? Do you want to find out one day your nephew accidentally killed you son?"

Petunia bit her lower lip hard. Her eyes were wide yet unfocused. For another few minutes they said nothing, and laid down together. She felt utterly cold, as if she had just betrayed a dear friend's trust and loyalty.

"He must go" Vernon said slowly and softly, and she barely heard it first. It was this Vernon Dursley wanted to say from the very beginning.

Petunia shook awake.

"Go? But where could we send him? Who would ever want him?"

He was silent for a moment, considering the best of the options he had concluded over the years.

"Soviet."

"What?"

"Soviet, Petunia. We can send him to the Soviet Union. Remember my old German associate, Hans Adler. He has a branch of his company that works with stray animals in Soviet, turning animals into food. He always need help in that branch, I am sure he could find something for the boy to do. And if we send him out of the country, those things shouldn't be able to find him. And we don't have to tell him what he is. There are enough freaks East, he'll fit perfectly among them. We'll be free from him."

"But..."

"Petunia, the boy will destroy us if we keep him. Neither of us will be able to leave the house, and Dudley is not safe. This is the perfect plan."

Petunia laid down beside her husband, doubt clung to her heart, but the idea of getting rid of the boy was appealing. But then it struck her.

"Vernon, they know where we live. What if they come looking for him and discover what we've done?"

"Then we'll move as well." He turned around to face her. "I've got a potential business partner in Dover. I was thinking of turning him down, but perhaps I ought not. We could all go there, and none of them will ever know."

Petunia nodded slightly, but she still wasn't sure she fully liked the idea. After all, a part of her would always remind her that there was a reason she had decided to keep the boy from the start.

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><p><em>Note: Please do not ask me to upload quickly. I am a full-time university student with little time on my hands, updates can take weeks at the worst of times. I hope you all, however, will enjoy the story. And finally, if anyone who has started reading this story knows Russian Russian cultures, I will be very pleased if you could tell me more about your country, as this entire story is planned to partake in Russia. Books can only take me thus far._


	2. Chapter 1 The Talking Wallet

Hi, did someone miss me? I am sure no one did, but still... I am 200%, so incredibly sorry for being so delayed. To be honest, I didn't think I would be _this_ busy this term, but I seriously have no regular uni-work any more. My teachers somehow want me to work 21/24 at the moment. Yes, 3h of sleep in total. I don't get it at all.

My second reason is my computer breaking down completely, so I had to get a new one... _**sobs**_. Rest in peace no. 3.

Also, to all who live in Russia and will ever find this story very false, forgive my lack of knowledge for Russian history during the 90's. I was mainly a kid throughout it and never bothered reading the news. Therefore, I lack a lot of knowledge about Russian cultures/general lives/none-historical events, I am currently working to get better.

To play it safe, no, you will not find Nigde on any maps. It's a forgotten town. Since I lack old maps, I thought it would be for the best.

**Chapter 1**

**The Talking Wallet**

Harry Potter was a normal boy, he had jet black hair, green eyes and a scar he preferred to hide under his fringe, because he hated wore round glasses, that sometimes wanted to tip down his nose because they were a little big. Since he had been six years old, Harry had grown a great deal. However, as many children his age he was skinny, underfed and constantly hungry. In the town called Nigde, which means nowhere, people generally were hungry. It once had another name until everyone realised they actually had been forgotten and therefore much never changed. In Nigde, people were lucky if they even got three meals a day and a bed. In the local Pab, many of the middle-aged men fought for money to buy meals. If they didn't win, at least they saved money on heating expenses.

Harry was a lucky boy however, unalike many other boys. He had since he came to the Soviet his dear Uncle Lev who gave him both food and lodging. Uncle Lev was a thin man with greyish ash-blond hair. He was actually in his thirties, but looked much older. He often wore a patched suit, which he continuously patched to repair.

Uncle Lev worked for a man named Hans, who owned the pet care station. This was a place where abandoned pets were temporarily given a home, before taken somewhere else in the country. This meant that their house sounded a lot from the many cats, dogs and other strange creatures. Hans however was a greedy man, and rarely paid for high expenses, so the animals went hungry too. Because of this, fingers could seem like a tasty treat, so Harry had early on learnt to keep his fingers away from the bars of all the cages.

Uncle Lev was a very kind man, and from what Harry could remember from the family he once lived with before he came here, was that no matter how hungry he was or how little they had, Uncle Lev was always there for him. In truth, he'd rather stay in this poor world than go back. Uncle Lev constantly tried his best for the boy, even if they were not related. He gave Harry half of his plate when they barely had anything to eat, and he never hit Harry, no matter how angry he was. Harry distinctly remembered the man from his former home hitting most brutally some time before he was sent to the Soviet, that he still dreamt nightmares about it for years and Uncle Lev would stay with him and calm him until he fell asleep again.

Harry had many friends among the animals that he had personally adopted. He owned a white parrot (Laika), a grey small terrier (Mikhail) and a black cat (Anna). He didn't however have any friends among the other children of his age. A lot of people found Harry too odd with his black hair and green eyes, not to mention he was an outsider. Many of the townspeople also knew that Uncle Lev didn't side with the ruling Communist party, therefore making him a traitor.

"The Communists", Uncle Lev usually said, "is the downfall of all good in the world. When the Noble Tsar ruled over the land we could at least always expect food on the table. Now, look what we have."(1)

If the store allowed however, he would travel to St Petersburg and the Winter palace to see if he could find something to bring back. So far, he had nicked a piece of fur he stated was something that most surely, princess Anastasia herself must have worn before the royal family was abducted. However, Harry was pretty sure all those things had to be stolen far too long ago, or much heavily guarded.

Once he got back he would tell Harry about the stories of the last Russian Tsar. His favourite was however the October Revolution, because it was the strangest.

"You see Harry, the rebels broke into the palace on night and abducted the royal house. They kept them imprisoned for many months until everyone were executed. Tsar Nicholai, his beautiful wife Alexandra, the heir of the throne Alexander and of course his many lovely daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria and of course Anastasia."

From here on he would whisper.

"However, they say the youngest daughter Anastasia escaped and she may still live among us.(2)"

And that would usually lead to him showing off some of his many theories and explanations, in which some were so far-fetched it simply made Harry's eyes roll.

But life in the Red Star Union was fairly pleasant, if you sided with the right side. In school they were taught about the great two leaders, Lenin and Stalin and their great leadership and achievements. On occasion they would mention this great dream with Soviet being the mother in the west and China, with old Chairman Mao, in the east, however by now China was just a big traitor having fallen into such economic capitalism ever since their alliance fell apart.

To all this, his classmates would simply nod. Himself, he ought to consider all this bogus, however there was silently a small voice in his ears reminding him that he was here because no one wanted him where he was born, so perhaps some of it wasn't all lies. Perhaps they hated him so much because he was poor from the start. After all, the general idea with communism isn't it that everything is shared equal, so no one would be without? It really failed miserable, didn't it? After all, society is for everyone, so there shouldn't be those differences whether you were better than others by being noble or richer, you share with others. Like all those riches the catholic church had, that could be better spent helping those in need? And none decided above you, because you were all equals.

Such a whole lot of bullshit really, then why did everyone go hungry?

Oh yeah, it had been like this for years now.

But we better stop the misery here within the story, because this is not a story about the unfairness of the world, communism or really how Soviet was already starting to "evolve" into Russia. For Harry, his story and his evolution started 1991 on the 23rd of June. However, the sudden changes didn't come with magically enchanted bikes, there were no such things as giants knocking down doors. There existed no weird and mysterious letters. This simple story starts with one starved eleven-year-old, one small store and one strange man in a terrible hurry.

Harry had been hurrying home from school that day. Summers in Nidge were quite hot, at least when you wore the school uniform that was pretty much designed for the colder winters. No one could afford more than one uniform, so shade was what everyone hoped for. As did he. In school everyone were told to constantly wear their uniforms proudly, so he didn't dare to remove even his cap, in case one of the ruthless school guards came to check, or perhaps even a fellow student. Their Headmistress was ruthlessly wicked with her cane and beat anyone who looked down upon the pride of the country, uniforms an all.

Another reason for him to hurry was because some of his classmates were quite brute and would surely beat him once they saw him. Luckily he was quick and could outrun them all.

As the best way were the more narrow, winding streets of Nidge, therefore he zigzagged between the many buildings. The close space provided some shade and less chances of being seen. It provided plenty of dark and ominous corners however, and at one point Harry stopped. In front of him stood a very strange man talking to another man he couldn't see. The man in front of him however wore strange clothes, a purple robe, a black top hat and a black silk cloak. He was obviously quite wealthy and probably important, and he spoke in a low voice. Harry pressed himself to a nearby wall to keep himself from being seen.

"The Master is not very happy, the process is taking too long. Did you gather the items or not?" the strange man asked.

"Not yet." the hidden man said.

"Well, you better hurry. The Master wants to start this ritual as soon as possible, and we need all those items."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But you try getting those cups across the borders. The Finns are notoriously vicious about their artefacts. As if the gateways of hell would open by simply doing this. Last time when I had to get that hammer out, they almost caught me in a black of ice."

"Maybe they have their reasons. Maybe, you're just as bad for that in their eyes. Maybe you _shouldn't_ have tried to steal the ancient kantele?"

"But, Borkoff offered such a good price for it."

"That idiot was sent to Tuonela for it. Perhaps you want to join him there as well. (3)"

"N-n-no thank you"

"Good, than you better get other items as well. And do it soon, otherwise we'll send you down there ourselves."

The strange man turned towards where Harry hid in the shadows. The silk cloaked danced in a none-existing draft. Harry saw the man had purple, almost red eyes, but before he knew anything else the man was gone. He had disappeared instantly.

Harry uncovered from his hiding space, what the two men had spoken about didn't concern him much, strange people sometimes did pass through here, however Harry noted the man had dropped his wallet, and even if he knew this was against all complete moral standards, he did check the money pocket. He was hoping he might find a potential reward if he could find the man and give it back.

The wallet looked very fancy, it was encrusted with gems and probably made of leather. It was bound with some sort of magnetic force. It had one large opening for bills along the side and a small pouch for coins. Harry decided to check the coins first and...

SNAP

The pouch closed over his fingers harshly. Harry jumped back in surprise. Harry looked down and saw that were the bills would be a mouth had formed.

"Dirty thief!" the wallet said. "What are you trying to do, I already gave you a lot of money."

Two of the pearls on the wallet suddenly started spinning and the stopped to show two eyes staring at him.

"Oh, wait up... you're not him. Who are you by the way? A thief, well I'll say, you're out of luck. I only open the vaults of those who hold me."

Harry didn't answer back, he was much too shocked to even say anything.

"Well, at least you're not that stupid boy he normally leaves me with. All he does is asking me for more and more, like I am some sort of never-ending fountain, but even I have limits, see" he flew up a bit, unhooking Harry's fingers to show him a small tear in the material. "I'm starting to tear."

"I'm Harry." Harry said, feeling rather dizzy and quite sure he was dreaming.

"Harry, well, it's very nice to meet you Harry. I'm the wallet."

"Is that your name?"

The wallet laughed.

"You're asking me if I have a name. Goodness me, I would dream of one. Now, if I had a name, what should I be named? What do you think?"

The very absurd idea of a wallet with a name convinced Harry further and further he really was dreaming. However, he still thought for a moment to consider a good name.

"How about Gustav?"

"Terrific. From now on, I'll be Gustav. Thank you so much. I suppose you'll be my new owner from now on. I have no idea where my old one went, oh well, it doesn't matter."

And he flew down into Harry's pocket.

Harry stood still for a moment. It slowly felt as if the world around him seemed normal again, but he also had that strange new weight in his pocket reminding him he was still dreaming, or reality had suddenly turned very bizarre.

Harry took out the wallet, or perhaps he should call him Gustav from now on, crazy isn't it? He checked for money and found none where the bills were supposed to be, but in the coin pocket he found the strangest coins he had ever seen.

There were plenty of coins, in gold, silver and copper. Harry couldn't believe his eyes. He had money, for the first time in his life he had money. Quickly he hurried to the open streets to one of the stores all children in Nigde dreamed to visit but few could afford. The candy store.

Harry selected the biggest piece he could find, a huge lollipop in rainbow colours. The woman behind the counter smiled at him sweetly, and he hadn't felt so good in years. But when he was going to pay she simply said.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear but I don't exchange currencies. I actually don't know where you got this money, I've never seen it before. Could it possibly be Chinese?"

His glorious victory turned into a quick defeat, and once Harry excited the store several of the children who had watched. Harry hurried away from the store, he promised himself, he would sort this out somehow. Tomorrow he would exchange all this to roubles and then he would live very happily again (4).

As he walked slowly back home again, he overheard some mother's whispering as he passed.

"See there, it's that strange little boy again. I heard from my girl he tried to rob the candy-store down the road just minutes ago."

The idea of being a little strange didn't phase Harry at all. After all, strange things that couldn't be explained had happened before. Only last month, Uncle Lev had been out to tend some new findings of abandoned kitties in a box, and he had left Harry on his own to tend to the store. The day before certain events were about to occur, they had received a vicious, large dog, which had been barking and growling none-stop since it's arrival. It was so fierce it shook it's cage by banging from side to side. About an hour after Uncle Lev left Harry heard a crash and soon had the dog chasing him around the entire place. In the end it did catch up and Harry had it hovering over him, drooling down on his face. The next thing he knew, the dog had been smashed into the wall and fallen unconscious. It didn't wake up until long after Uncle Lev got home, which had given the man a lot of time to cage him again. However, Uncle Lev could barely lift it.

Another such incident happened around when he was nine years old. He had been on his way home from a very quick errand, when a group of loyal communists had cornered him into a brick wall. They had punched him and kicked him hard enough to last him bruised for a week, however when one of the kids had intended to give him the final, finishing blow, Harry suddenly found himself home again, right outside the door. Uncle Lev had opened it to find him bloodied and bruised, however the man had been proud of him for not fighting back yet getting away from his attackers. Harry had no recollection though what had happened or how he had been able to escape.

Harry sighed. It was no wonder so many tried to avoid him.

He remotely walked back to uncle Lev's store to find the man rather busy at the moment. The last animal to arrive was a Siamese Siamese cat, with two tails and heads and he had a very big problem to get it to eat something. Harry simple called out to announce he was back, in which he got a mumbled "Welcome home", before walking up to the second floor and his room.

The shop Uncle Lev had was designed with two floors. The ground floor was the store, with cages everywhere where the merchants could choose their animals by walking around. The floor above was the living area, where they slept and ate. It had three small rooms and a corridor with a simple greasy mirror hanging. One of the three rooms was the kitchen with a cooking spot, and table with three chairs (one was used in case Hans wanted to inspect them). The other two rooms were bedrooms. Uncle Lev had the bigger one, which also included a desk where he sat long hours going over accounts. Harry had the smaller one, which basically included his bed, several centimetres to walk by and several hangers where his possessions hung in bags.

Unalike Uncle Lev, he wasn't alone in his room, he had three friends living with him. They were Laika, his white parrot, who usually slept and resided on the headboard, Anna, his tabby grey cat, who when he entered, snoozed softly on his pillow and thirdly Mikhail, a small black terrier who greeted him happily by wagging his tail. All three were his friends and had been _rescued_ from different fates.

Harry sat down on his bed, which roused Anna from her sleep. The small cat sleepily walked up to him, stroke her back against his leg and fell back to sleep. Harry smiled as he took out the strange wallet again. It lay lifeless in his hand,He turned it around, examining it closer, opened it to see if he could find anything, but there was none. He looked closer at the bejewelled side, wondering if they were real. Suddenly remembering that he actually named it, he quietly said: "Gustav?"

The lifeless wallet suddenly sprang back to life. Beady eyes once more stared at him and Gustav flapped, scaring Mikhail and waking Anna, who seconds later hid under the bed.

"What? What is it? Oh, I was jut having such a nice dream."

"Oh, sorry." Harry said, though he wondered how a wallet could dream. "I was just wondering, where are you from? You see, some minutes ago I went by the Sweets store to buy some and I noticed you have no roubles. The lady didn't recognise your strange coins."

"Strange coins... strange coins... what do you mean strange coins? Are you seriously stupid? I'm a wizarding wallet."

"A what?"

"A wizarding... hold on, don't tell me you don't know what the magical world is?"

Harry stared dumbly at him.

"Oh boy, er... " If Gustav would have had a normal face you would clearly have seen how shocked he was. "OK... er... listen up, Harry. You're a wizard, get it? OK, you could technically be a squib but your money is linked to a wizarding bank and if you didn't have any magic in you, you would never have noticed I am magical. But, you've never heard of the wizarding world."

"Sorry, I'm a what?"

"A wizard of course, you know person who can wield magic. And considering how old you must be, then don't worry, I know you will learn soon what wizardry means. I am pretty sure Durmstrang Academy already know of your existence and are already preparing your invitation as we speak. In any case, let's get started."

"Started, on what?"

"On your education. Open me up."

Harry quickly opened the coin case, which once more was full of strange coins. He could hear Gustav's voice talking and giving him instructions.

"Now, take out the three different cons you find, and I'll explain everything to you."

Harry did as Gustav told him. The first coin he picked was small and brown, made of bronze. The second was slightly bigger and of silver, the third and final, which interested Harry the most, was gold and the largest. Gustav flapped out of his hand and hovered over the three coins Harry placed on his bed.

"OK, listen carefully Harry. You're a wizard and like every wizard you are entitled to a bank account. For every wizard who owns a wallet like myself, you automatically get an account from where you are born. Note this however, it doesn't mean it has any money in it. I can see you do though, someone must have been saving for you."

He flapped up to be level with Harry's eyes.

"Lucky for you, isn't it. Anyway, there are several banks in Europe, 9 in total. 5 of them are shared among neighbouring countries, Ireland and the United Kingdom have Gringotts, Belgium and the Netherlands have Hemelcoin, Switzerland and Austria share Reinesmarbres, Spain and Portugal unwillingly share Tesoro and the five northern countries have Guldgömman. France has Pluiedor, Italy's Salvadanaio and Germany founded Kaisergold after the Muggle War, because someone forgot to cast protection charms over it. Some German wizards still believe it was a faux from the Ministry. The one here in Soviet is called Dertseveschi (5)."

"And my bank is?"

"Well, the withdrawals you'll make will come from Dertseveschi, however your vault I believe, is in Gringotts. But, I can't tell for sure, I don't know all details since the workers of Gringotts don't even share this information to us wallets."

"So, there are 9 banks then, and they're the same?."

"There used to be more to be honest. However with all the wars, battles and general mistrust countries between and wizards between, most are gone or in pieces. As for being similar, well... currency yes, we all use these coins as does the American banks. I know however some African islands trade with rare shells rather than gold, and the Asian market has a lot of jade and dragon scales. But ours isn't so complicated, because scales tend to mess up currency from time to time."

Gustav nudged the three coins with one end of himself.

"These are what we use. This" he tapped the bronze with one end "is the knut. The silver is called a sickle and the gold is a galleon. Simple maths is that 29 knuts make a sickle and 17 sickles make one galleon."

"How much is a galleon worth in roubles?" Harry asked excited.

"Let´s just say one galleon could have bought you several of those sweets you wanted. Anyway, while we're still talking Muggle money, I might as well teach you how to exchange wizarding money to muggle currency."

Harry nodded, feeling a new wave of eagerness spread throughout his young mind.

"It's easy, and it's called _swift exchange_, because you don't have to go anywhere to do it. Just close me again, and open me while saying: "Soviet roubles."

Harry snapped Gustav together, closed his eyes and loudly spoke: "Soviet roubles". He opened his eyes again to find not the coins, but several bills of different values. However, before he could take some out Gustav snapped shut firmly.

"Hm, I can tell we have to teach you some self restraint next, that will be the next lesson. Get your shoes on again, we're heading out."

Gustav snapped shut again, flopped onto the bed while Harry went to find his shoes, very eager to leave the house. Anna, the little cat, jumped on and curiously poked the now lifeless wallet.

When Harry got back home that evening he had been going back and forth between several of the towns stores, learning to ignore the hunch of needing to buy something now that he had money. As Gustav pointed out, suddenly having a lot of money lead to a lot of trouble, and it wasn't until Harry started thinking about it that he realised it would. People would probably hate him more for it, but it didn't stop him from going back to the candy-store and buy that huge lollipop he had spotted earlier. And boy did it taste incredible.

* * *

><p>(1)I want to note, I personally don't blame communists for bad things going around the world. However, according to Skott, before the October Revolution 1917 the general public had better lives than after. What to make of this, I'd rather leave to experts as I would need to read many more books about these matters before I can made heads or tails out of it<p>

(2)I might add for anyone who has never checked these matters and watched the 1997 animated movie (or many other movies) of Princess Anastasia, it is very much now proven she did not survive the execution. None of the royal family did.

(3)Taken from the poem of Kalevala. It's a a piece of 50 songs of Finnish folklore about the hero Väinämöinen and his struggles from creating the world to fighting great evil. The kantele they talk about is the magical musical instrument that charms all creatures around it.

(4)Originally I intended for Harry to just buy some food and be throw out by the angry shopkeeper, however as I wrote this down from my handwritten scripts to my computer I started thinking about times in your childhood you wanted something extra and as I grew up reading and watching Pippi Longstocking I remembered one seen where all kids gets to eat all the candy they wanted for one day. For someone who can't afford, I think a large lollipop like that would be very satisfying indeed, remember in Philosopher's Stone Harry did want to buy sweets now that he could. I let him keep that feeling.

(5) This is me playing with words basically. Dertseveschi is deprived from Dertzhar' tsennye veschi, which according to google translate means _hold valuables_. Personally I think Italy's was most fun, since it means piggy bank. And finally, sorry if anyone from Norway, Denmark, Iceland or Finland are wondering why you have to share 1 bank with Sweden under Swedish name. It's just, the North is a small place, probably a very small magical population and well Sweden is centred.

That's all from me for now, sorry once more for the delay, I'm currently so many chapters ahead it's getting stupid. That's the thing about writing everything down on paper before I do it here. I can write wherever I want.


	3. Chapter 2 The Bearded Man

_Sorry for all delay... I will try to update a bit more often, but truth to be told, university is a time-stealer and has lately not gone as planned... so, I basically haven't been able to work on this properly._

_But so far, chapter 10 has been written, so this story will go on._

_Secondly, any Russian readers? Please leave reviews regarding your favourite Russian holidays, and tell me a little about it. All comments would be very helpful._

_Ps: long chapter, as a compensation for not updating for ages. Not to mention, this was written mostly during one eve._

**Chapter 2**

**The Bearded Man**

A few days passed, however those days seemed to fly past so quickly as if they were seconds. Harry discovered more about the wizarding world and about the many wonders of it. History would soon change for all of Soviet, but for now, Harry had no idea of this and was content sitting by the river Krasmyir, with his wallet open in his hands. Gustav was as always, talking and teaching, trying to cram as much as possible so that Harry would know as much as possible, because he had a feeling it was better this way.

"Our world is known to co-exist with none-magical beings. But to make this easier for myself, we'll call them Muggles, because that's what we named them. Surely enough, Muggles stand for the majority of the human race, almost 95 % of the world's entire population, so as you can see they are quite the number. However, on occasion such things as Muggles being able to wield magic arrives, we call them Muggleborn."

"So, does this make us unique?" Harry asked, eager as always.

"In a way, yes... but don't get conceited. There are those who thinks only wizards should exist, preposterous if you ask me. Muggles may not have magic, but they have something else. Brilliant minds and hands to work with. There is a saying: Made by hand, destroyed by magic. Muggles create much easier and build fantastic things. Though few of those none-Muggle friendly wizards would agree, many of our own constructions were made by Muggles from the start and has made our lives so much easier."

Harry thought for a moment.

"So, how did we learn that we could use magic?"

"Well, it's kind of always been there, no one knows when we started to distinguish ourselves. Possibly, we've always done that. Remember Harry, you have probably stumbled across this yourself. Whenever you're scared or frightened something miraculous happens. Most likely, you are removed from your troubles or it is likely it disappears. This is raw magic, and the oldest kind. It's more common to use as young, because once you start school, you will train to control these powers."

"Wow, there is a school?"

"Oh dear... sometimes, I forget how little you know. Let me see, how should I put this. There are actually several schools located around the world, most are found in Europe, but North and South America has a few more distinguished ones. So, yes we have _schools_. There's normally around one school for each country or a small group of countries depending on when it was founded. The school, I would suspect, that you will enrol to one day is Durmstrang. It's a good school, one of the largest in Europe. The other grand schools would be Beuaxbaton, which lies in French... and Hogwarts, the oldest, I think it was founded around the 11th century."

"Are there any more?"

"Yes, but I don't know all of them, some are very small. However, I believe in total Europe has 26 different schools, varying in size. I know for a fact Monaco has the smallest school, some doesn't even want to call it a school with only a total of 50 students. There are schools that have very strict curriculum, such as ELF (Educational Liberate Foundation), this school only has 4 students, but the students all become experts within a certain field. Some schools are very international, more than Hogwarts, whom I know accepts Irish and in some cases also Indian students, or Beauxbaton, that has a few Canadian student as well. There is MAGI (Madam Agnes Glamorösa Institut) west in Scandinavia, a pretty new school, it's only a hundred years old. It has an agreement between the five countries Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland to be open for all five nations, because their wizarding populations are much too low for one school separately. I also know they actually include students from 10 countries in total, as long as the students are OK with Swedish lessons, I have never understood why."

"But, is Sweden that big really?" Harry asked, having heard through history Sweden was a petty kingdom.

"No, not at all. But that empire thing, some king once said, got to the wizards' heads. They tend to be all prune and pansy, but to be honest the only real thing to remember them for would be the potion to clear out Horklumps."

Gustav continued.

"And in the wizarding community, we are geographically divided by the same boundaries as Muggles, since wizards at times were also part of war. There are however independent wizarding communities, I know the Vatican is one, since well... very few wizards believe in that God, or any God at all. (It's magic!) The Lapps in Northern Scandinavia have refused to join in any of the Northern countries, stating they have an ancient council that works even better. Actually, all geographical boundaries are run by a Ministry, while communities are run by councils."

Gustav yawned (as much as any wallet can yawn). Harry continued sitting plastered to the information coming from the wallet, which wasn't weird at all. Uncle Lev's trip to Moscow seemed stranger than all the new things that happened in his life. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if he suddenly started calling down claps of thunder or call down a rainfall of cats and dogs, he was mainly surprised he hadn't.

It seemed the magic within Harry had reached a new peak within all this excitement of his life. He barely could go near candles without lighting them or pass the snakes in the local pet store without hearing the strangest conversations coming from the snakes themselves. His life was not normal at all, that normality started becoming unusual.

The new excitement had reached it's peak the morning before, when he received a huge brown package containing a book Gustav had put an order for. A Beginner's Guide to Magic by Maya Dog. Harry spent as much time as he possible could reading it, eager to learn more. He figured, if he could learn all this, he could perhaps help Uncle Lev and himself out of their miserable life in poverty. All he needed, as Gustav had told him, was a wand. And he was eager to get one, the question was how?

Getting a wand could neither be done by the dove, owl or bat offices, like books were ordered in the wizarding world. Strict rules applied to wandmaking and the rights to sell them. And as always, as eager as he was, he brought this up for the 15th time that day.

"I'm sorry Harry, but according to the rules on the wand market, you have to contact a wandmaker in order to get your first wand. There's no other options for this, and NO" he sighed. "I am not a genie, so stop asking me to get one."

"But you got me a book," Harry countered.

Gustav sighed again.

"I sent for that book days ago, so it would get here. Just try to be a little patient. I am sure the Office for Unexpected Magical Events already know of your existence."

"But..."

"Harry, I know you're eager to learn, but these things take time. I've heard Durmstrang accepts the application of over a hundred students a year, but less will finally be accepted. And with the fewer amount of pure bloods with each generation, the competition is fierce. And with the Muggles always expecting and fearing the worst, no one can do much to hurry up anything. I mean, at times like these the rift between our world and the Muggle world is at it's thinnest. Focus on what you can learn now, because once we get that wand we will have to pick up the pace even more. They only keep the best. The competition is very difficult. Have you never wondered why I have already prepared things for you ahead?"

"This is why I need a wand, I need to practise" Harry countered, yet again.

"Yes, and you will get one. Now, tell me... which are the differences between a flotation spell and a levitating spell?"

* * *

><p>Later that same day Harry and Uncle Lev shared a poor meal together, which consisted of a piece of bread, a few potatoes and a slice of ham (bought by a neighbour who had just butchered one of his pigs). Lev had just gotten back from Moscow, with a horse a costumer had wanted either saved or dead. Lev was telling Harry about his battle with this strange decease the horse had caught, yet Harry wasn't listening. He was barely eating. Anxiety nagged him.<p>

A forbidden thought had entered his mind. What if someone did not notice his magical potential? What if he wasn't eligible for Durmstrang? What if he wasn't accepted at all? Gustav had once told him about immature magic and how dangerous it was. What if they hunted him down and wanted him gone for using dangerous magic? Harry could just imagine tall strangers arriving at the door, asking for him, Harry Potter.

Uncle Lev had moved on to tell him about the kittens they saved a few days ago, that had to be put to sleep. The kittens had been put in a sack to drown, yet been saved as Lev witnessed it. Still, their condition had been too poor to survive.

After dinner Harry and Lev sat down in a corner of the place to mend cages. They didn't have money for new ones, so each time a cage broke they would mend it by mending back the bars or using metal string to tie them together. There was a large one that needed extra attention, seeing a huge dog had broken out from it.

The shop had cages for all kinds of animals, birds, cats, dogs, rats... There was a huge one that currently held cats that had been saved from a local coat factory. Though the place seldom received any larger sum of money, saving the cats had lead to a local donation for the saviours business and the cats new homes. Most of the money would go to the new homes, however they needed to think what to do with the extra money.

"I think we ought to buy you a new pair of shoes. Your old ones are falling apart, and you know... leather shoes last pretty well and might keep the worst rain out."

Harry shook his head.

"No Uncle Lev, my feet are fine. I appreciate the idea, but I think you should have the money. Have them check your back, to see what's wrong with it."

Several years before Harry came to Uncle Lev, Uncle Lev had been added to the military training. He was sent home however, because the rough training caused a heavy blow to his back. All though the problems hadn't been very difficult to live with at first, it got worse as age slowly crept upon him and the pains got more and more severe. Uncle Lev had difficulties working while standing for extensive periods of times, which wasn't good as he often went everywhere to save animals and even be pushed or slammed by larger animals.

"Oh, my little Harry. You don't have to worry about an old fool like me. I can take care of myself quite well. You should enjoy being young for as long as you can."

And with that he bent down and picked up a small hammer and started the very painful process of banging a few rusty nails into an even rustier handle. Harry knew Lev was good at ignoring his pains, but he could tell the action itself had physically been painful.

Harry sighed and picked up a screwdriver to unscrew the screws of a smaller cage that was so beaten up it could only be used for spare parts.

It wasn't until late at night that they put away their tools into a carbon box and went to bed. Harry heard Uncle Lev give a sigh of relief as the man lay down on his bed. The little cat Anna joined Harry and Mikhail. Laika was perched on his bedpost, whistling to Für Elise, which had been played on the radio of their neighbour. Gustav lay silent and lifeless on a shelf.

"You know what" Harry whispered to his friends. "No matter happens to me with all this magic, we will always be family, right?"

Harry wasn't sure if this was based on his imagination, but he felt as if his animal friends understood him. Anna moved closer to rub her head to his side. Mikhail licked his tears and Laika stopped whistling on Für Elise to whistle a lullaby instead.

Harry was fast asleep within minutes. He didn't notice as Gustav suddenly stirred. The bejewelled wallet flapped out of the window, a smile edged within the rim.

* * *

><p>Next morning Harry woke up to find a note from uncle Lev. It said:<p>

_Dear Little Harry!_

_Miss Pavlov found a puppy in the old well, and asked me to come and help her brother save it. There are some cold potatoes for lunch. Take care and stay out of trouble._

_Lev_

_Ps: I forgot to check the post office before I left. Please head to the office, I'm expecting a pretty large package._

Harry had a piece of bread and butter for breakfast then hurried down the two blocks to the post-office. He felt very energetic and couldn't shake off the feeling that something would happen today.

The post-office was one of his favourite places. One of the reasons was because it was always clean. The lady who was in charge was very particular about this. He also liked the men and women who worked there. They were always nice, and sometimes gave him small gifts as stamps or pretty post cards.

The package Uncle Lev had expected was a sending of dry dog food from Moscow. Clearly, the horse had made it impossible to bring both back. The sending was a gift from one of Lev's friends who wanted to help out a little. Harry was very happy for the help, they were currently having a few cute puppies sent to them, and he was glad they would all get to eat.

On top of the box were several letters. Harry did his best before he had to leave, and bow and say his thanks to the nice postmen, which nearly made him drop all of the letters.

The happy atmosphere from the inside was quickly disrupted by the people outside.

Since it was summer, no one had to attend school. This meant however that all bullies had extra time to do what they liked the most. There was one group in particular that were nastier than the others. They were I, Fita, Yat and Izhitsa (1). I was the main leader, and the brain which really says nothing. I was the son of the local plumber, and because of his father's work, he used to be the bullied before he found Harry. Fita, Yat and Izhitsa were the sons of a butcher, gardener and cleaner respectively. Because none of the boys were very important or special they needed someone to take their misery upon, namely Harry.

Unfortunately for Harry, they 4 of them had decided to follow him. They all ogled at the big package with interest, guessing what riches could be within it. I bet that there would be something valuable. Fita guessed it could even be money. Yat guessed it could be food and Izhitsa had no idea. The main point was, Harry the nobody had gotten a huge package and they hadn't.

Harry had no reason to expect the unexpected ambush. It all happened in the blink of an eye. He duffrnly found himself on the dirt road, with a red mark, the size of a fist, over his left cheek. The package and letters lay scattered around him. Above him stood I, who spat on him.

"Check him out, the dirty dog!" I said nastily. "How does it feel to look up at us, the real soviets!"

Harry touched his cheek softly. It stung from the impact. He tried to get up, but I and Fita pushed him back.

"Not so tough are we" Yat said.

"Yeah, not so tough are we?" Izhitsa echoed.

Fita held his hands back while I punched him. At the same time Izhitsa had ripped the package open, and emptied it on the streets.

"Look!" he said stupidly, holding a bag of dog food in his hand. I grinned.

"The dog was getting his meal, he must be starving poor thing. Well, let's feed him!" he said grinning.

I took a handful of the dried dog food and forced it into Harry's mouth. It tasted revolting.

"Hold him steady!" I ordered his lackeys and he continued to punch him.

PUNCH

Harry felt the searing pain of I's first connecting to his stomach and he bit his lip as to not cry out in pain.

PUNCH

All boys laughed.

PUNCH

Harry was sure his ribs would break soon, the pain was almost unbearable.

PUNCH... PUNCH... PUNCH

The rhythm of the bunches was that of a wrestler, however I was no wrestler he was just a boy. In all his pain, Harry couldn't help but to wish the worst out of him. They called him dog, when he was just another boy. They acted like dogs however, the way they had thrown themselves over that package.

PUNCH... PUNCH... **WHAM!**

Was it Harry's imagination, or did a black beast just run into him? He didn't know, as he lost consciousness. As he blackened a familiar scream tore through his ears, followed by green light.

* * *

><p>Harry awoke much later that evening by someone licking his face. He stirred to see Mikhail standing over him. He was lying in bandages on his own bed, the sheets had been changed and smelled faintly from soap. He was home, he smiled.<p>

Mikhail barked happily, happy that his master was awake. The sound of course attracted Uncle Lev's attention, who rushed in, closely followed by Hans, Uncle Lev's boss.

"Harry... Harry, are you okay?" Uncle Lev asked softly, stroking his bangs.

Hans was murmuring irritably behind him about Harry costing him a fortune.

"Pay him no attention." Uncle Lev continued, causing Hans eyes to spark menacingly. "I was so worried about you. The post office called me to tell that you had been attacked by a gang of dogs. I couldn't believe my ears, and all this because I made you get that dog food."

"Dogs?" Harry asked weakly.

"Yes, four large Labrador were running into you. When I arrived they had eaten almost all the food, they must have been starving. You were so cold, I thought you were..." he didn't finish the sentence, just drew shivering breaths.

Hans cleared his throat, Uncle Lev turned around.

"If you two have finished chit-chatting, we have some things to discuss Lev, before I leave."

"Yes, but..." Lev began.

"NOW, Lev!"

Harry nodded towards Uncle Lev to go, not wanting him to get in any trouble with Hans. If Hans got really angry things would only get worse for them.

* * *

><p>He woke up hours later by something sharp poking his uninjured side. At first he thought it could be either Mikhail or Anna and ignored it. However, it didn't stop irritably he turned to tell the person, or whoever it was, to stop. He saw Gustav looking at him.<p>

Harry sat up in shock, only to grin in pain.

"Keep quiet." Gustav warned him, and they listened. The walls were thin enough to hear anything. Uncle Lev was talking to someone, but it wasn't Hans. Curious, he got up, grinning badly as his ribs ached. He should probably rest, but he was wondering who would visit this late.

When he entered the hallway he could hear the voices more distinguishably. As he reached the stairs he could tell exactly what they said.

"I know this must be quite the shock for you, but make no mistake. I've already stunned five Muggle parents with the same kind of news. There is no mistake in it. This boy is without a doubt a wizard. He has shown a great deal of potential over the years and today has confirmed it. It was a perfect transfiguration of those four boys. Don't worry, the damage has been repaired and the boys don't remember anything about it."

"But I still don't understand. Why would you need to take him away?" Uncle Lev asked.

The mysterious man sighed.

"Every wizard and witch needs training. If a wizard never gets trained, well... his magic can end up destroying him. With everything that has happened here, I think you agree such forces are not necessary."

Uncle Lev started crying, and Harry felt bad for having wanted to leave the man for these last few days.

"Do not cry my friend, he will return over breaks and summer, in terms he can afford going home over the winter break. Not to mention, Durmstrang is one of the finest schools in Europe. His education will be exceptional. He is very lucky."

"But, how can we afford such a thing? Hans will never allow him to go to a fancy school."

"Do not worry about that. Normally students without income would be able to go through a fund to the school, however this boy seems to have acquired wealth from the banks in England. However, the goblin wasn't very fond when we stated this, saying to leave the vaults of the dead in peace."

"Theft?" Lev gasped.

"No, call it politics. My friend, don't take it so hard. Your charge will be well taken care of, and when he is finished at Durmstrang he will have many new opportunities in life."

Harry heard quick steps approach. He soon found himself face to face with Uncle Lev, who was red eyed from crying. Uncle Lev didn't seem the slightest happy to see Harry out of bed, but left to his room without a word. The whole thing made Harry feel very uneasy.

A hand suddenly touched his shoulder, as he stared at Uncle Lev's door. Harry turned to see a beaded man with grey eyes. His beard was finely trimmed from very long whiskers. The beard was dark, but not perfectly dark. Strands of grey and white hairs could be glinted in it.

He smiled, and showed harry a white set of teeth, with the exception of a sole gold tooth.

Harry concluded he must be someone quite important, seeing gold was rare.

"Good evening Mr Potter. My name is Dima Palsternack. I am the Professor of the Mysteries and Professions of Dark Arts at Durmstrang Academy. I have been sent by the staff to welcome you to our school on September 1th."

He held out a thick brown envelope. Harry took it, looked at the seal. It showed an eagle standing on the head of a wolf, that had a snake in it's fangs (2)

"Well, open it!" Dima Palsternack said.

_Dear Mr Potter_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to the entrance exam to Durmstrang Academy that starts on September 1th. This means we will allow you the honorary chance of entering our prestigious academy of incredible learning. For preparations, we expect your reply soon, and wish you good luck on the short exam that will be held in the KGB office in Moscow. We expect the reply to be sent by either bat or owl._

_Sincerely _

_Paporotnik Zaytsev_

_Deputy Headmaster at Durmstrang Academy_

The letter also included a list

_List of school supplies_

_Each student requires:_

_1x Wand_

_1x Cauldron, standard_

_1x set of Alchemy scales and equipment for standard processes_

_3x standard uniform,_

_1x hat, wolf or bear fur_

_1x pair of gloves_

_Books:_

_What's brewing by Ira Azarov_

_The properties of roots by Oleg Glinka_

_Basic Transfiguration by Slava Delov_

_Wandwaving, make the magic by Vikenti Ivankov_

_Behind the curtains, a guide of the unknown by Yelena Laptev_

_History of the Red Blood by Anisim Mager_

_An Encyclopaedia of Herbs by Nikon Salko_

_Beginners' Magic by Vasili Charkov_

_Note1: All accepted students will have to arrive at Lubyanka building on August 30th. All passed students must assemble at Sosnovyi Bay on August 31th. 8Pm for transport to the school._

_Note2: Magic between students at school can risk expulsion._

_Note3: a student is allowed to bring a cat, owl, frog or bat to the school._

Harry read the letter thrice before he looked up. Professor Palsternack was examining one of the white cats in one of the cages.

"Uhm... sir..." Harry began.

"You can call me Professor Palsternack, or even Dima outside of school of course."

"Well, Professor Palsternack. I was wondering, how can I acquire all these items?"

"Well, you should travel to Pilo, it's a village not too far from here. It's a wizarding village. They should have all you need, and more."

Harry nodded. Now he finally had somewhere he could go.

"And how do you get there?"

Professor Palsternack smiled.

"I am pretty sure your little leathery friend can help you with that. Don't worry so much about that Harry, just concentrate on your studies. The entrance is quite difficult, and very strict. You must study hard to get in. But with your potential, I am pretty sure you will manage to."

_TBC_

_(1) The names are based on old Russian latter, that are according to wikipedia, not used anymore._

_(2) I know the film version of the book featuring something different, so this actually carries out a different symbol, which will be perfectly explained in a later chapter._

_There... I actually did it... I wrote the whole thing! Hurray! I am such a lazy woman, really..._

_Give me an Internet kick next time I make you wait these many months. It's not good!_


	4. Chapter 3 Pilo, a Village of Magic

_I was rereading parts of the story, and apart from spelling and grammatical mistakes, I noted I am a very bad at leaving end note information regarding parts of the story._

_So, before we start with the official story, here are some extra information regarding each chapter thus far:_

_(Prologue: I know this is the weakest part of the story, considering how ignorant these two can be (as Muggles are made to be) about magic, they do make a very huge deal out of this. I just found it amazing how Vernon Dursley, throughout the entire HP storyline, never had Harry thrown out the streets.)_

_Chapter 1:_

_Gustav is a Russian name as much as a Swedish name. The wallet Gustav, kind of got named after the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf (Gustaf = Gustav)_

_Chapter 2_

_Concerning the Swedish magic politics: The Swedish wizarding politics has no ties really to Muggle politics. While Muggle politics is today a very peaceful affair, with the regular amount of problems as any other political sphere, proud Swedish wizards hasn't really understood they are not living in the 18th century any more. In Swedish Muggle history, attempts were often made to make Sweden into an empire, a deed very often brought down by either rivalling countries or bad inner problems. Trying to keep within these geographic borders, the Swedish wizards of the time sought to escape their Horklump pestered country (Horklumps being a mushroom alike creature. With no use apart from quickly spreading) by finding new lands to conquer, the result pretty much only allowed the Horklumps themselves to spread worldwide. With this kind of over-estimating philosophy made, as MAGI (the Swedish magic school) being founded, it sought to create it's own rival of International politics, however very few countries have sought any interest in participating in this._

_About Harry's sudden ability to transform boys into dogs: I've been quite insecure about this, but I didn't want a random enemy to pop up and transform them into dogs, to later hurry away and leave a ton of plot-holes. As I've come to understand magic, before you are trained a lot of the magic is born from fear or very strong emotions in general. For example, when Harry (in the first book) was chased, he got out of the way, when Aunt Petunia tried to force him into one ugly shirt, it got smaller- Transfiguration is supposed to be very complex, but I went with the idea that with all the dogs Uncle Lev takes care off, Harry must be quite used to animals. Hence, his magic turned his pursuers to something smaller, it's just too bad for Harry that the Labrador didn't stop attacking him._

_When Palsternack spoke about the Muggle parents, he meant Muggle parents with half blood kids. In some cases (aka many), once a wizard or witch finds out their Muggle lover had their child, well... they kind of gave up on them. Half bloods are accepted into Durmstrang, but this doesn't necessarily mean all half-bloods were raised by wizards._

_The Lyubanka building is an actual building, that was described in Scott's book as a yellow building, with significant roles. It was a little misleading. It was during the time of this story, HQ for the Soviet Comity for State Security. The committee disappeared along with Soviet itself. Today the FSB (Federal Security Service) has taken over the role that KGB used to have, in the same building._

_Missing parts of the story: The last chapter was intended to be much longer, however I've repeated that part several times in my manuscript, I decided for now to leave that part be and let another character/characters explain it when we get there._

_And with all of this said, let's get on with the story, and I'll try to keep the notes at the end of each chapter._

**Chapter 3 Pilo, a Village of Magic**

Harry's excitement didn't settle until the next day. By this time he had pretty much closed himself into his room, taken out the book Gustav had bought for him and ignored Uncle Lev's attempts of calling him down for breakfast. It wasn't until that very same afternoon that Harry's excitement started depleting somewhat, when Gustav finally had enough of all this sudden arrogance and decided to like always, lecture Harry in his own way.

As Harry was obviously not paying attention to anyone at the moment, even ignoring his animal friends, Gustav did the only thing a wallet can do naturally fell down and landed on top of Harry's head. Since he still carried a few coins within him, the impact wasn't painful, but it felt.

"Ouch, Gustav... what?"

"Oh, so the quiet one can talk!" the wallet exclaimed in performed amazement. He was actually very irritated by now.

"What in..."

"Haven't you forgotten something?"

Harry sat up straight, and started to explain enthusiastically about the recent events. He gave a short review of what Palsternack had told him, and then went on with all these ambitions ideas that had stuck to this mind overnight. Although he had not been very sure of how his new life would be, Palsternack's positivity had somehow turned into an almost impossible dream that would allow Harry to get out of his poor lifestyle for good, to become a new leader of the country. While he was telling his dreams in details, Gustav lay silent with eyes closed. After a while Harry stopped to talk for a minute. Believing Gustav was asleep he started to nudge him, which wasn't his best idea, yet he kept on telling him about all his ambitions.

"I know this place is great... OK, it's not that great, but wouldn't you want to see what lies beyond this village. Just to see what's beyond the mountains, to be able to go anywhere?"

Gustav snapped, literally snapped himself over Harry's fingers. Harry yelped, backed away a few feet as Gustav said loudly.

"Snap your trap, you rascal, or I'm off for good!"

Harry kept silent.

"I have a couple of things to say to you. First of all... stop talking dreams, start facing reality. You have much... much more to learn before any of what you say could possibly come true! If you wanna end up with the elite, then you will need a much, MUCH bigger head-start."

Harry thought for a minute, yet he still couldn't understand it fully.

"Secondly" Gustav continued "the world out there isn't always necessary better just because one thing in your home goes wrong!"

This Harry understood, an image of a man hitting him with a belt flashed in his mind.

"Thirdly, I don't deal with egoistic wizards. If you keep going on, I will leave for good. And then you can say goodbye to your precious money, because you will not get any, ever! And finally, have you even considered your uncle's feelings?"

This hit Harry like a stone, and all his ambitious projects flew out of the window like a puff of smoke. The whole prospect of what Lev would say made him feel nautilus. Harry remembered how frustrated and sad Lev had sounded the day before, and suddenly felt very bad for wanting to leave. Uncle Lev had never done him anything wrong, on the contrary he was the reason he had a moderately happy life. Not to mention, Uncle Lev only had Harry and Harry's only relation was Uncle Lev. Out there, he would have no one.

Harry couldn't say anything, and Gustav simply lay still once again acting more like a regular wallet than an enchanted one. The silence was broken however, but not by another one of Gustav's remarks as Harry would have expected. It came from the door.

"You should go."

Harry looked up and saw Uncle Lev standing by his door, looking straight at him. His eyes were still holding a tint of red, and his voice was strained by sadness, but at the moment he was smiling.

"What?" Harry said, unable to comprehend what was happening.

"You should go." Uncle Lev repeated.

Gustav flapped up beside Uncle Lev, the rim of his mouth opened to talk.

"While you were busy preparing your overambitious schedule, I decided to explain the rest to your Uncle here. He may have been a bit shocked to see a flying wallet, but since he met your future professor(1), it seems nothing can shock him enough."

Harry was unable to say anything. Uncle Lev nodded towards Gustav, who flapped away towards the kitchen, and then bent down to hug Harry tenderly.

"Harry, I will not be an obstacle in your life so you won't be able to achieve what you want. But, I want you to promise me that you will keep this place in mind, always, because it will always be your home. And to me, you will always be my son."

Harry wasn't sure what to feel, should he be happy for Uncle Lev's blessing, should he feel sad for the fact he would leave such warm atmosphere behind. His world suddenly felt as if it would get a lot colder. However, as Lev hugged him Harry felt tears trickle down and he hugged back. Uncle Lev's sudden love made him quite emotional, scared and also grateful.

"By the way Harry, don't go to bed too late tonight. And get back to your book, however tomorrow we will need to buy you the rest of your books!"

* * *

><p>The next day Harry sat on a broken barrel by the front door of the shop. Gustav had proudly informed the sleepy boy that very same morning that he had arranged a quick travel to Pilo, so that Harry would finally get all his books and equipment. As Harry had squeezed down his share of breakfast, which was more than usual since Uncle Lev knew Harry might go hungry as neither knew what kind of food you could buy there, Gustav once more repeated pretty much what Professor Palsternack had said last evening.<p>

"Remember, I will expect you to study hard these next couple of days. The entrance to Durmstrang is almost unrivalled by any other school. No other school accepts so few compared to the applicants. When your entrance exam start, all the other boys and girls be your worst enemy, so I will need to polish you even further. If you somehow would manage to impress the examinees, you might get a shot.

"But, didn't you say last night that magic is prohibited in the Muggle world?"

"Oh it is, it's an international agreement to not show off magic, it would cause too much fuss. But, your magical journey hasn't officially started yet, has it..."

Harry nodded agreeing. His head still felt a little soggy after the last night's studying session. Gustav had been a harsh teacher, discussing every nook and cranny from the pages of _The Beginner's Guide of Magic_. While Harry had been unable to perform magic, it didn't stop him from reading about it. And he could already see that once he had that wand in his hand, things would only get harder. Magic by theory wasn't just wand-waving and saying some mumbo jumbo. As Maya Dog had described it:

_Before wizards knew about wands or the properties of fusing materials to perform higher level of magic, magic was solely used through the control of your emotions and mental control. Magic is not a force that exist within a small group of human based creatures, but also within the world itself. The magical properties often involved using this power from within yourself and extracting it, often by a great use of force. This complicated art is today forgotten within the modern wizarding world in the west, and solemnly used within the Asian philosophy of being these energies and by African tribes, who have gone even further to invoke the power from within the layers of personal history to invoke the power of the departed. But in general, the wizarding world has moved on by finding better and more effective uses of mediums to perform magic._

Harry could feel the pressure building slowly, he still had days to practise, but something told him days might not be enough. After all, he had never been close to a wand before. H knew Gustav only meant well by pressuring him, but still...

"Theory is one thing, and sadly it will be the easy part. Practise will be much, much, much harder... then again, what do I know, I'm just a wallet."

Gustav was currently in the dirty old backpack between his legs. The bag was Uncle Lev, and had once been marine blue with a patch of the hammer and sickle. Now, only the patch was easily distinguishable as the colour itself was impossible to see under all that dust.

The ride took it's sweet time to arrive, and as to not bore himself he started humming softly on the national anthem.

_An unbreakable union of free republics,_

_Great Rus' has welded forever to stand!_

_Created in struggle by the will-of-the-people,_

_The united, the mighty Soviet Union! _

_Be glorified, our fatherland, united and free!_

_Bulwark of people, in brotherhood strong!_

_Party of Lenin, the strength of the people,_

_It leads us to the triumph of Communism.(2)_

He suddenly stopped singing when he heard something approaching. At first he thought it had to be a horse driven carriage, because there was echoes of bumps and hooves, but as it god closer these hooves sounded more and more like feet. He leaned forward a bit to be able to see further down the road and sure enough, in front of a smoke of dust there was a man dragging a rickshaw behind him, running as if the wolves were chasing him.

"Heya" he said and stopped right in front of Harry's confused eyes. "Did someone here ask for a one man transport to Pilo?"

"Y-yeah... we... I did." Harry answered.

"Awesome. Well, don't just sit there all day. We've got at least 50 miles to run. Get on!"

Harry jumped down from the barrel. He felt quite uneasy about this. The rickshaw was originally made by wood, but very old and mended on multiple places with whatever this man had on his hands, like sticks, piece of cloth and on one place a plastic cup. It looked as if it could break down in minutes. Harry sat down on a dusty old blanket, and found, to his amazement, that it was very comfortable.

"Uhm... sir, is this..."

"Call me Boris, yeah... we put a comfort spell on it. Keeping our carriages old and battered keep the Muggles away. What's your name?"

"Harry."

"Harry? Foreigner? You don't sound like one."

"I moved here when I was six."

"Oh!" Boris said, while doing some stretching exercises for warm up. He then grabbed the handles of the rickshaw and waited patiently for Harry to sit down.

"Security rules!" he said loud and clearly. Every trip requires me to make sure our passengers are safe and don't get hurt unless a wheel falls off. Firstly, you may not lean outside the rickshaw. Secondly, you may not try to hook yourself to anything outside and thirdly, you will under NO circumstances throw anything on the runner, understood!"

"Sure" Harry said, not really giving the first two warnings much of thought. What could be so bad about leaning out to watch your surroundings?

"Great!"Boris said and started to jog. The rickshaw bumped slowly down the road, but once they passed the village border and were met with the massive landscapes of forests and fields Boris started to run. Soon the landscapes passed by quickly, like a blur of colours with the wind gushing by. The trees and mountains were blurred, they passed trains that seemed to run by the speed of a snail. Harry quickly realised this speed had to be caused by magic.

Harry, who was aware of Boris' warnings, still leaned over slightly to see if he could figure out how this all was possible. By now they ran over a lake, which caused ripples on the surface of the water. Harry noted that Boris' shoes were glowing, which he guessed was the cause of the magical speed itself. Several Muggles were looking at them, but what they saw was really the ripples on the water, which didn't make them think twice about it.

They quickly reached the other side of the bank, and Harry was forced to lean back all of a sudden as he felt something hit his left cheek. He touched it softly, feeling something wet. He didn't need to think twice about it, slightly ashamed he realised what it meant.

It was around noon when Boris finally stopped outside a pair of iron gates. Harry shakily climbed out as Boris stretched groaning as a few of his muscles started to creak.

"I would so need a raise, how on earth do they think I can keep on doing this until I am 50." he mumbled to himself, before turning to Harry. "That will be eleven sickles." he said, holding out his hand.

Harry took out Gustav, who was still silent, and paid Boris eleven silver coins. Boris smirked, pointed at Harry's cheek and said:

"I hope you listen to us next time. If you had tried to grab a tree branch you would have been left on that bank by the lake."

And he left.

Harry shrugged, knowing he would be much more wary around magic. But his attention was soon taken back to the large gates, that now opened in front of him. Harry was soon to discover that Pilo was the most bizarre place he had ever visited. It was a small yet crowded village, in which the people wore the most unusual assortment of clothes (which he suspected wasn't because of poverty). The many shop-windows were thickly layered by dust, but each shop had it's own set of costumer and weird assortment of items, animals and even people. Harry got quite a shock as he watched a mannequin with a very odd hat, that suddenly stared back at him before walking away. There was one store that had a strange but wondrous assortment of creatures. It was called;_ Madam Vydra's Magical Familiars for Breeding, Petting or a Good Stew_, Snoozing in the window was a beautiful pink and yellow bird. As he approached it stirred from it's sleep and opened it's beak as if to say something. A woman in ash blond hair walked up to it, pointed her wand at it and sent a shower of colourful sparks at it. It went back to sleep.

Harry felt a tug from his rucksack and opened it to see Gustav staring up at him.

"Hello again" he said. "Are we there yet?" He had obviously been sleeping.

"Yeah" Harry responded.

"Good, then let's get started with your day. I'd advise of you to get a wand. Maks Pulskin is the wand maker here in Pilo, find his shop. It's right beside the one with a large cat painted on it."

And then he went back to either sleep some more, or just pretend to be a wallet again.

It wasn't very hard to find Pulskin's shop. The "cat shop" was a fortune-tellers teashop, and the cat in question wasn't the average lifeless cat. Gustav had forgotten to mention that paintings in the magical world could talk, or in this case meow."

Harry passed the extravagant shop, seeing a huge assortment of shawls hanging by the door. A very angry middle aged wizard slammed the door behind him and shouted:

"One of these days, you damn woman, you shop is closing faster than you can say Romanov!"

A woman, probably the owner, laughed from an upstairs window and hauled a cauldron of water at him.

Harry was kind of happy that Pulskin's shop wasn't nearly as extravagant, on the outside. Perhaps the lack of the large meowing cat added to that.

The interior of Pulskin's store spoke differently. It was a lot more elegant than the exterior. A huge chandelier of crystals hung in the hall entrance. The floor was covered by an oriental carpet. The shop area had a huge mahogany desk, and walls stacked of boxes, all branded with the initials MP.

A man by his thirties sat by the desk. In one hand he held a pair of silver pincers and the other he held, what looked like, a furry wand. He wore a simple monocle, that made his right blue eye ten times larger and made him look very odd.

Gustav cleared his none-existing throat and the man looked up to see Harry standing there. Pulskin immediately ceased his work.

"Yes, how may I help you?" he asked.

"I er..." Harry began. "I am here for..."

"He's here for his wand." Gustav suddenly said and flew out from the rucksack. Pulskin stared at Gustav.

"By Rasputin's beard!" he exclaimed. "Durachit(3), is that you?"

"Yes" Gustav grumbled. "However, I would prefer if you called me Gustav from now on, seeing this young man here renamed me a while ago."

"Gustav eh... so, a change of owner? What happened to that other boy?"

"A tragic memory for my part. Let's just say, I am much happier like this."

If wallets could blink properly, Gustav would probably have hinted something. However, as Harry was listening to the two of them he got the feeling there was more to this wallet than he ever imagined. Harry was very well aware of that he wasn't Gustav's first owner, but he got a suspicious feeling that the previous owner was someone he ought to be best not knowing. He didn't say anything, and as he stood there silently Pulskin took out a leather measuring strap, measuring him in several ways.

"Which is your wand arm?" Pulskin asked.

"Uhm... I'm right handed."

Pulskin took careful measures of his arm, shoulder to elbow and all of his fingers. He scrawled down the result on a piece of paper.

Harry had no clue what to expect, and it surely didn't turn out to be anything specific. Pulskin went to the back of the store, returned after a few minutes with a stack of boxes. He also took down some from the stack of the wall. Each box held a thin wand with a leather handle.

The first wand Harry held felt like ice between his fingers, the second like heat. One wand was as dry as the desert, and another light enough to fly out from his hand. In all these cases Pulskin shook his head, snatched the wand away and brought another one.

Harry spent a full hour waving wands back and forth making Gustav laugh on occasion (like when a wand decided to blow up in his face) and Pulskin think deeply. The man's hair was white from dust when the man finally gave out a sigh, but there was a gleam in his eyes that hadn't existed before.

Pulskin went down on all four, rolled the oriental carpet to the other side of the room. Beneath was a hidden trapdoor, which he opened. Harry leant forward to get a better look. Underneath was a hidden compartment with a few very dusty boxes, that had probably been there for ages.

Pulskin brought up a mahogany carved box. Inside was a single black wand.

"This is alder wood, combined with a phoenix feather as core. 9 and a half inches."

Harry took the wand, it surprised him by feeling warm and soft in his hand. He waved it once and the room flashed as if lightning hit it.

Pulskin laughed.

"You... you are on tricky costumer. Who would have thought, who would have thought!"

"Excuse me?" Harry didn't understand a thing.

"This wand was made by my father." Pulskin continued. "He was an amazing wand-maker, in league with Gregorovitch. The tree is of alder(4), a tree that is meant to shield oneself from exterior threats. The phoenix feather comes from the royal phoenix that was traded to a noble family in China. It's a very powerful wand, it is loyal and trustworthy. I am sure you will be something else, and to think, it all happened in this little store!"

Harry didn't dare say more, he barely understood half of what Pulskin said. Gustav did though, and as soon as they exited the store he gave him a completely different story.

"Don't mind what Pulskin just said, he is known for being a bit loony. Shall we get the rest of your things?"

* * *

><p>The remained of their stay was left for getting all the other items on the list. During all this time, Gustav stayed silent and behaved like any other regular wallet did. What Harry needed were books, clothes, a cauldron potion and alchemy supplies and a bat, as bats were the common carriers for letters.<p>

Books could be found in a run-down, creepy cellar, run by a rat-like man. It wasn't a book store, but an order-place for various types of books. Harry gave them his list, in which the creepy man wrote them down in an order form.

Clothes were bought in the shop with the mannequin he passed earlier. He got a set of standard robes, but the remaining accessories to his robes would be supplied only after he had been allowed in the school and sorted. There were 3 houses in Durmstrang, as the shopkeeper told him, and each had between 10-20 students, depending on whether the students could live up to the school's expectations. Harry was reminded of all the things he would need to learn.

Potion and Alchemy supplies came from a store with a woman who saw Harry as if he didn't wear any clothes on. She didn't look at him. Instead, she speedily packed a starter supply on both subjects.

Harry didn't like this store at all. The walls held the most strange of objects, and another boy his age whispered to him, as they both waited for supplies, that she collected teeth from small boys she lured to her.

Harry saw many families with their children. Most seemed to be half bloods, but there were several that said they were pure bloods and wore it with pride. Harry learnt that Durmstrang only accepted pure bloods, half bloods and on occasion part-bloods, but no muggleborn. To be considered as none-muggleborn you had to have a wizarding relation at least five generations back and this was carefully documented.

It was late when Harry finally got to travel back. By now, his backpack was bulging and he also carried a small cauldron and a cage with a big black bat. The girl in the pet store had explained that magically bred bats never got lost, and would carry mail for you. You could be certain your message would get there.

Once more he took a rickshaw home, however this time he was careful to follow the instructions. This runner was slightly older than Boris, and didn't speak much at all. During the run he flt himself getting more and more drowsy as the excitement gradually wore off. He vaguely remembered Gustav jumping out to pay the runner and Uncle Lev so carefully carrying him and his new things to his room.

_Notes on this chapter:_

_(1) It may seem this whole part of entering Durmstrang is very easy, but Gustav is pretty much just doing what he does best apart from paying your expenses. Which is talking. As a wallet, I highly doubt he ever did this kind of entrance exam._

_(2) This is a translation found on wikipedia. I don't intend any bad propaganda and solely decided to use this part for the historical functions._

_(3)Durachit means fool._

_(4) If you check alder wood and the magical properties, this kind of wood actually is the opposite of Harry, as in it defends against your astral self. But, as I hope I can incorporate in this story one day, there is a reason I chose this wand for him._


End file.
